An advocacy group’s efforts to throw its support behind unionized grocery workers actually directs consumers to shop at non-union establishments.

The unusual step by ProgressNow Colorado is designed to bring pressure on King Soopers, City Market, Albertsons and Safeway stores — where more than 17,000 unionized workers are without a contract — by showing consumers the doors to alternative retailers.

Those retailers, according to an early view of the group’s website locator map, tend to be stores where unions are not represented, such as Target, Costco and Whole Foods.

In an economy where supermarkets battle with discount, no-frills stores for every consumer dollar, industry analysts say it’s one thing to tell consumers to shop elsewhere and quite another to show them.

“Competitors are the only ones to win in that strategy,” said Andrew Wolf, an industry analyst for BB&T Capital Markets in Virginia. “It takes much, much longer to recoup lost customers.”

That was the case in Southern California when a supermarket chain owned by Kroger, which also owns King Soopers and City Market, reeled over the losses from a 4 1/2 month strike that ended in February 2004, costing them more than $2 billion.

The strike involved the same union — United Food and Commercial Workers — representing workers here.

It took months before the companies started to show a profit again, Wolf said.

ProgressNow’s interactive map is designed to help union-supporting consumers find places to shop, executive director Bobby Clark said, “but not stay there for good.”

“We’re not too concerned after the strike that people won’t go back,” said Clark, whose organization takes on a variety of social and environmental causes.

If what occurred in California is an indicator, the strategy might backfire, especially because consumers already are looking to save money by shopping around.

“That behavior had not yet started when the California strike happened, so going to a different store wasn’t that easily accepted,” said Phil Lempert, editor of SupermarketGuru.com. “Now it’s already in place because of the down economy. Unlike California, I don’t think they’ll ever get their customers back. It could backfire big time.”

Along with wages, at issue are health care benefits and pensions.

UFCW Local 7 officials have said they’re merely awaiting approval from international officers in Washington, D.C., before striking.

Workers at Safeway stores have authorized a strike, but workers at King Soopers and City Market stores have not. Albertsons workers have not voted on a walkout, either.

The website

David is a member of the Investigations Team and has been at The Denver Post since 1999. He was a founding member of the team before writing about banking, finance, human services, consumer affairs, and business investigations. He has also worked at newspapers in New York, St. Louis and Detroit over a 35-year career that began at The Post.

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